Women's Ashes gets serious at Lord's
Published: 19 August 2013

The Women's Ashes Series arrives at Lord's on Tuesday 20 August evenly poised, after England and Australia drew the one-off Test.

Two points and the series lead are on offer at the Home of Cricket, as the two teams play the first of three NatWest ODIs before the Ashes comes to a climax with three t20 matches.

Australia had the better of the four-day Test, but failed to push home their advantage on a slow pitch, thanks largely to a brilliant 157 from England opener Heather Knight.

Jodie Fields' tourists will feel disappointed that they failed to take the sucker-punch six-points on offer at Wormsley, and England batter Lydia Greenway is hopeful Charlotte Edwards' side can continue their upward curve at Lord's.

"We came back really well in the Test and executed the plans we wanted to. Hopefully that can give us a bit of momentum going into the first one-dayer," the 28-year-old told ECB.co.uk.

"I think that’s the beauty of the new format. We’ve both got two points now and the series is very much still alive."

Both sides will be happier in the shorter formats of the game after a rare multi-day match.

World champions Australia start as favourites at Lord's, but despite England's disappointing performance in losing their world title at the ICC World Cup in India earlier this year, both sides know there is little to choose between them.

And Greenway is hoping that the evenly matched nature of the contest and the heightened interest in the game during an Ashes summer will attract a good crowd to Lord's.

She added: "We had decent crowds at Wormsley every day and hopefully the people who were there will spread the word and come to our other games."